Meraftafjellet, Apr 13 2016

Uksenøya island high point

Every Wednesday, I work in Ålesund and after work I do a hike in the Ålesund/ Giske/ Haram / Skodje region. Today, I decided to visit Meraftafjellet after work – the highest point on Uksenøya island.

My route up and down Meraftafjellet

I just love the off-trail routes on this mountain. Can’t explain it. It’s just something about that forest. At first, I followed a forest road for 0,6km. But after that, it was all off-trail up the forest.

Off-trail in the forest below Meraftafjellet

When I reached the east ridge, I also joined the trail from Glomset. This is also the first time I had to step on snow. Fortunately, other hikers had left tracks in the snow so the walk up to the summit was quite easy.

The walk up to the summit

It was really, really nice to be back on this mountain. It’s been a few years since the last time. I had almost forgotten about the great views from up here…

View from Meraftafjellet

I decided to take a route straight down from the summit. There was a lot of snow on this route, and the snow was soft as butter. The only practical way to descend was to get on my butt and slide as long as there was snow to slide on.

Oh yeah!

There was enough snow left on the mountain to justify bringing skis. The east-facing slopes had plenty of snow. The only problem was that the snow was so soft. But it’s quite fascinating that one mountain could allow for a ski-trip on one side of the forest and a snow-free hike on the other side…